DESCRIBING BEAUTY 211 



orography and hydrography, the distribution of 

 rainfall, of plants and animals, and the population. 

 We shall regard ourselves as having omitted to point 

 out to him the essential characteristic of the land 

 from which Englishmen have sprung and in which 

 they dwell if we have not shown him the beauty of 

 its natural features. We shall give him the maps as 

 aids to rinding his way about, and we shall give him 

 the treatises. But we shall tell him that these are 

 only aids for special purposes, and that if he is really 

 to understand England he must know its beauty in 

 its many aspects. He will then have the geographical 

 knowledge of chief value about England. 



A project in which the Society is now interested 

 affords an excellent opportunity of applying the 

 principles I have been trying to persuade you to 

 adopt. The most prominent feature of this Earth, 

 and the feature of most geographical interest, is the 

 great range of the Himalaya Mountains. In this 

 range the supreme summit is Mount Everest, the 

 highest point on the Earth, 29,002 feet above sea- 

 level. Attempts have been made to ascend the 

 second highest mountain, K 2 , 28,278 feet, notably 

 by the Duke of the Abruzzi. Colonel Hon. Charles 

 Bruce, Major Rawling, and others have had in mind 

 the idea of ascending Mount Everest itself. And 

 for more than a year past both the Alpine Club and 

 this Society have been definitely entertaining the 

 idea of helping forward the achievement of this 

 object. We hope within the next few years to hear 

 of a human being standing on the pinnacle of the 

 Earth. 



